


Trial Run

by otherscott



Category: EXO (Band), VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Fluff, M/M, NaNoWriMo, Open Relationships, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 06:33:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2722268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otherscott/pseuds/otherscott
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Junmyeon and Kyungsoo get into an argument and attempt to live their lives apart from each other. They deal with this loss in different, somewhat over-the-top ways. Madness ensues. (university professor AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!! it's been a while *A*
> 
> here's the project i was working on for my nanowrimo~~ to be honest so far it isn't completed LOL but i'm hoping that if i put it on the internet i will be inspired to finish it  
> i have more than half of it done rn but i will finish soon. please inspire me to write more!!  
> i will be updating this a couple of times a week, hopefully.
> 
> this fic takes place in university au along with domesticism and vocal :D  
> i would suggest reading those first because this takes place after all of those events  
> it's more kyungmyeon because they're my otp lol <3  
> this has a lot more plot than a lot of my other writings because this was my attempt at writing something substantial lol.  
> this isn't as porny as my other writings but there will be porn i promise ||D
> 
> ok so i hope you enjoy what i have so far!! susoo are really sweet on each other and stuff, but in this they have a fight and have to try to live without each other and meet other people.  
> this au has a lot of characters in it lol. they're mostly from exo but there are also people from shinee, vixx, girls' generation...i try to share the love lol  
> if you have any questions about this au/anything in general please don't hesitate to ask 
> 
> thank you so much for reading and commenting! it means the world to me! *w*

Junmyeon found, after seven months of dating, that when Kyungsoo was immersed in an episode of Jeopardy it was difficult to bring him out of it. Junmyeon had come to terms with it, and was content to let his boyfriend study the television with wide eyes for thirty minutes each day. He did, however, think he had every right in the world to hate Jeopardy marathons with a passion.

He was in the kitchen throwing some lazy stir fry together and trying to think of all the words he and Kyungsoo had shared so far today. Probably a few sentences back and forth when they woke up that morning -- Kyungsoo was hardly a morning person and couldn’t be bothered to make small talk at any hour before noon, and Junmyeon had grown accustomed to it. Kyungsoo had stopped by his office today at around three to tell him something, and then returned fifteen minutes later with a cup of coffee because apparently Junmyeon looked like he needed it. Junmyeon didn’t drink it, because he thought coffee was the devil’s brew. He appreciated the sentiment anyway.

Kyungsoo returned home before Junmyeon did, as he usually did on Thursdays. When Junmyeon walked into the living room Kyungsoo was still in his work clothes, slouched on the sofa and hanging on Alex Trebek’s every word. Junmyeon had smiled at him and Kyungsoo gave him a couple words of a greeting, but didn’t look away from the screen. Now it was two hours later and Kyungsoo was still in the same position.

It was really frustrating but he would _survive_ , Junmyeon kept telling himself. All marathons came to an end, because if not then every good samaritan trying to raise money for a charity would die from exhaustion. He banged the spatula up against the side of the frying pan, and put it down on the counter, wiping his hands on his pants. He thought it was dumb that he was using Kyungsoo’s frying pan to make dinner instead of his own wok, but Kyungsoo had recently cleaned it and had left it out on the stove, so Junmyeon grabbed it first.

“Kyungsoo, do you want to eat now?” Junmyeon called out from the kitchen, and wasn’t entirely surprised when he didn’t get a response. He bit his lip. “We’re going to eat now,” he decided, a little bit louder. He immediately felt bad and walked into the living room, and leaned on the doorway, staring at Kyungsoo with his lips pursed. “Baby, are you hungry?”

“Yeah, we can eat now,” Kyungsoo said, blinking at the television before turning his eyes to look at Junmyeon. “Sorry. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll bring it out, then.” Junmyeon turned and went back to the kitchen, moving to stir in the sauce he had prepared earlier.

“It smells good,” he heard Kyungsoo call out to him. Junmyeon smiled to himself and stirred in the sauce, and made a little sound when some of it splashed over the side of the pan and onto the stovetop. He rolled his eyes at himself and finished stirring, and turned the stove down before gathering two plates. He put rice on both of them and then tried to distribute the food in the pan as equally as possible, and when he was finished he stretched his arms out behind him as if he had just completed some feat of athletic prowess. He had grown up with cooks to do this for him, making dinner was _hard_. He brought the plates and two forks into the living room and smiled when Kyungsoo immediately looked up at the smell of food.

“Thank you, Junmyeon.” Kyungsoo told him as he took his plate, and Junmyeon sat down next to him on the couch.

“You’re welcome.”

“You’ve gotten better at cooking,” Kyungsoo said before taking a bite. Junmyeon laughed at him, and Kyungsoo put his plate on his lap, using one hand to eat and snaking the other hand down to take hold of Junmyeon’s. Junmyeon watched him struggle to lift food up from the plate to his mouth with his eyes still focused on the television screen, and laughed, moving his fork to Kyungsoo’s plate and picking up food for him.

“Here,” he said, hovering rice and carrots in front of Kyungsoo’s face, and Kyungsoo scowled at him and moved away.

“Don’t do that.” Junmyeon saw Kyungsoo’s face get a little bit red and smiled. “Don’t try to feed me. I’m a grown-ass man.”

“You’re going to have trouble eating if you’re just using one hand.”

“But I want to hold your hand,” Kyungsoo said, feeding himself and staring at the television.

Junmyeon burst out laughing. “You can’t stop me from feeding you and then say things like that! You can’t be selectively cheesy, Kyungsoo, you have to go hard or not at all.”

“I’ll be as selectively cheesy as I want!” Kyungsoo laughed with his mouth full. “Leave me alone.” Junmyeon tickled Kyungsoo’s hand with his fingers and Kyungsoo pulled away, scooting his knees up to his chest and putting his plate on top of them. “You’re dumb and annoying. This is good, though.” Kyungsoo motioned to the stir fry.

Junmyeon grinned at him and tried the dinner he made. “Waah, I guess you’re right. I have gotten better.” He made a face and sat up, clearing away books and magazines on the coffee table to put down his plate. “It’s hot though.” He reached for his briefcase that was leaned up against the table, and brought it to his lap. “How’s your Jeopardy?”

“I’ve seen this one before,” Kyungsoo told him, but he still looked riveted as ever. Junmyeon opened his briefcase and sighed at the stacks of papers that stared him in the face. He had just collected another batch of probably-mediocre essays from his Intro Politics students, and he wasn’t looking forward to being kept up all night reading them.

“I’m going to have a late night tonight,” he told Kyungsoo, who groaned in response. Junmyeon lifted a stack of papers to put next to him on the couch, and then snorted loudly when a sheet of looseleaf paper floated out and landed on the floor. “Oh my god.” He bent down to pick it up and looked it over before grinning at Kyungsoo. “A student wrote me a letter today.”

“What?” Kyungsoo didn’t look up from the television or his food, but his brow furrowed slightly. “What’s that mean?”

“He just. Wrote me a letter. I read it once in my office and then I guess I forgot I put it in here.” Junmyeon read a few lines from it and bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. Kyungsoo watched him out of the corner of his eye, and when he reached out to snatch it from Junmyeon’s hand, Junmyeon dove away. “Ehh, Kyungsoo.”

“Is it funny? Let me see it.”

“Maybe not.” Junmyeon frowned a little bit, his eyes scanning the letter further down and the contents coming back to him. Kyungsoo reached for it again and grabbed it out of Junmyeon’s hand, and Junmyeon whined at him. “Kyungsoo, I don’t think he wanted that to be shared with other people.”

“He shouldn’t have given it to you then, he should know you’re a gossip.” Kyungsoo said around the rice in his mouth, and Junmyeon watched his eyes go back and forth on the page, and then watched his chewing slow. Junmyeon frowned deeper at him.

“Kyungsoo.”

“What is this? Who is this kid?” Kyungsoo swallowed. “This is weird. Is this whole thing about your new hair color?” He read further and then chuckled nervously. “I told you that when you dyed your hair you’d have students falling for you.” Junmyeon was concerned with how the little smile on Kyungsoo’s face didn’t reach his eyes. “This is weird.”

“He’s kind of a weird kid.” Junmyeon tried to grab for it again but Kyungsoo didn’t let him take it, and then Kyungsoo moved his eyes to stare at Junmyeon, his face stern.

“Why don’t you want me to read this?”

Junmyeon pouted. “He gave it to me in confidence, I think it’s kind of rude if I gave it to you for us to laugh at. Even if it’s funny.”

Kyungsoo didn’t respond, his eyes still going back and forth on the paper. Junmyeon thought it vaguely entertaining how distracted from Jeopardy he was. “This is sexual,” he spat, and he stopped reading, dropping the paper on the couch and trying to return to his food. Junmyeon saw his gaze still trained to the paper, and hesitated before picking it up and taking it away from him.

“I didn’t ask him to write it.”

“You should hand it in to the department. A student shouldn’t be writing you private letters with things like that in them.” Kyungsoo paused, looking back to the television, and then glancing to Junmyeon almost immediately after. “Did you sleep with him?”

Junmyeon frowned at him, but couldn’t think of a way to get out of it. “Once, just once.”

Kyungsoo sighed loudly, and Junmyeon thought it sounded more like a growl than anything else. “ _Junmyeon_ ,” he said tiredly, and Junmyeon closed his eyes.

“I know.”

“It’s not good that he has a crush on you.”

“I know.”

“You need to tell him to back off.”

“I was planning on doing that the next time I see him. I didn’t read the letter until after class.” Junmyeon exhaled softly. “He knows I have a boyfriend.” He put the letter back down in his suitcase, and Kyungsoo sprung up and grabbed it. Junmyeon groaned and frowned at him. “Kyungsoo, please.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“If you don’t like it then maybe you should stop reading it.” Junmyeon said, and the look Kyungsoo shot him made him regret it immediately.

“Why are you being like this?”

“Because I’m really uncomfortable right now!” Junmyeon’s voice cracked, and he frowned deeply. “This isn’t something I asked to happen, Kyungsoo!”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have led some teenager on!” Kyungsoo scowled and put his dinner plate onto the coffee table. “I’m not hungry anymore.” He studied the letter some more, his lips pursed tightly like they were ready to explode at any minute, and Junmyeon watched him closely. “I can’t fucking-- this is stupid. Who writes a goddamn love note to their professor and then has the lack of brains to actually give it to him? What did he think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know. He’s probably really confused right now.”

“I fucking doubt that.” Kyungsoo dropped the letter to the floor dismissively, and as Junmyeon knelt down to pick it up a loud screeching sound boomed from down the hall. They both looked up to the doorway, and Kyungsoo shot up to his feet. “What the fuck was that,” he spat, and he stormed off in the direction the sound came from as his cat Angela sprinted past him into the living room. "Angela, you look so guilty," Kyungsoo mumbled to himself as he walked away. Junmyeon looked at the cat's wide eyes for a moment before getting up and following Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo was standing stiff in the laundry room, staring at the washing machine with murder in his eyes. “Why did it make that sound,” he said, and he opened the machine’s door, closed it again, and pressed the button on its dashboard. The washing machine started up after a few moments, and after a few rotations it made the screeching sound again and stopped moving entirely. “This fucking thing.” Kyungsoo scowled.

“I’ve had it for years, it’s never done this before.” Junmyeon said timidly, and Kyungsoo sighed.

“It’s broken.” Kyungsoo kicked the machine and almost seemed disappointed when it didn’t fight back. “Why is it broken.” Kyungsoo kicked it again and Junmyeon jumped. “It has my clothes in it.”

“I’m sorry, babe, I can call someone to come out and look at it.”

“My clothes are wet,” Kyungsoo said shortly, and he opened the door to take them out. Junmyeon could tell that Kyungsoo was being curt with him because he was upset, and it was making him very nervous. Kyungsoo opened the door of the dryer and started to transport his clothes. “I guess they’re fucking done.”  
Junmyeon watched Kyungsoo put his wet clothes in the dryer, and sighed a little bit. “It’ll be fine, babe.”

“It won’t be _fine_!” Kyungsoo shouted, slamming the dryer door shut and turning around to glare at Junmyeon. Junmyeon felt himself shrink a little bit against the wall. “I’m fucking mad at you! And this isn’t helping!”

“You don’t have to be mad at me,” Junmyeon said softly. “It’s not my fault.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Are you blaming this on the fucking college kid that you manipulated into sleeping with you?” Kyungsoo snarled at him. “I’m not taking pity on you! I don’t fucking think that you’re _somehow_ the victim of stupid love note! You were in a weird sexual relationship with a _student_ , Junmyeon!”

“I thought we had come to terms with this,” Junmyeon said, and Kyungsoo groaned and shook his head.

“I never came to terms with this! I always just repressed this shit! I didn’t want to think about my _boyfriend_ who used to hold his seniority over his students to get _teenagers_ to sleep with him!”

“Don’t say it like that,” Junmyeon lamented, “it didn’t happen like that.”

Kyungsoo took a few steps closer to him and Junmyeon almost stepped back. “Don’t fucking tell me that all of these kids slept with you because you’re just so damn charming and relatable. Don’t tell me that they all thought of you as a _friend_.”

Junmyeon frowned and looked away from Kyungsoo. “Kyungsoo.”

“Don’t lie to me. I’m not stupid.” Junmyeon could hear a little waver in Kyungsoo’s voice and it was wearing away at him. “This Chanyeol person didn’t think of you as a friend.”

“Kyungsoo, ahh, what are you implying?” Junmyeon bit the inside of his lip.

“That this kid let you fuck him because you were giving him As.”

Junmyeon shook his head and frowned, making a soft sound of disagreement. “Kyungsoo, that’s, that’s, no.” He put his face in his hands and shook his head again, feeling overwhelmed. “Don’t say that.”

“Why aren’t you fucking _denying it_?!” Kyungsoo yelled, and Junmyeon shook his hands at him.

“I’m really upset right now!”

“Agggh! I want to fucking _hit you_!” Kyungsoo shouted. “But I won’t! Because that would be _assault_!” He shouted some more, and then stormed out of the room, going back to the living room. Junmyeon stood in the doorway of the laundry room before timidly following Kyungsoo. “I fucking hate myself for ignoring this for so long, for months, for-- for however fucking long we’ve been dating!” Kyungsoo stopped in the middle of the living room and turned to glare at Junmyeon some more. “I want to go home.”

Junmyeon could feel his heart racing and he thought he might throw up. “Kyungsoo, please, you’re just freaking out.”

“I’m freaking out for a reason! This house feels like you and you feel like you and the thought of you is making me fucking ill!” Kyungsoo scowled and looked around the room before disappearing off into the bedroom. Junmyeon stared at the doorway, not feeling like he could move, and then whimpered when Kyungsoo returned holding the two pet carriers he transported his cats in.

“Oh my god, Kyungsoo, don’t do this. You’re just-- you’re just mad about the washing machine.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “I told you, I want to go home. I’m not leaving Pierre and Angela here.” He put the carriers down and looked around the living room, not finding anything. “Give me my cats. Come here, cats!” Kyungsoo yelled aimlessly, as if his cats understood English, and Junmyeon couldn’t think of anything to do other than follow him around. Kyungsoo went into the bedroom and found Hickory laying on the bed, and made a move towards him before thinking not of it. “That one’s yours, damnit.”

“Please don’t take my cat,” Junmyeon said with a nervous laugh, and Kyungsoo didn’t respond, not finding it funny. He went into the bathroom and found Pierre sitting in the sink, and picked him up.

“We’re going home,” he said to Pierre shortly, and Pierre just laid there limp in his arms. Junmyeon watched Kyungsoo take his cat out into the living room and put him in one of the cat carriers. Junmyeon went into the kitchen to escape it, but found Angela standing on the counter, licking at the pan Junmyeon had used to make stir fry.

“Ahh, kitty, get down from there.” He moved over to her and took her in his arms, Angela squirming just a little bit, and Junmyeon thought it over before bringing her out into the living room. He looked at Kyungsoo with wide eyes, and then handed the cat to him quietly.

“Thanks,” Kyungsoo told him shortly, taking Angela and putting her in the other carrier. He stared at the carriers for a moment before going into the bedroom again, and Junmyeon didn’t follow him this time, instead sitting down on the couch and staring at the television blankly. He didn’t absorb anything that was happening, just listened to the sounds of Kyungsoo packing up his things in the bedroom. He was hyper-aware of each twist and turn his boyfriend made, and thinking about it made him feel dizzy.

He heard Kyungsoo mumbling to himself from the other room, and his ears picked up on Kyungsoo repeating in a mocking tone, “if you don’t like it then maybe you should stop reading it.” Junmyeon felt sick from saying that in the first place. He closed his eyes and sat there motionless for a while, and jumped to his feet when Kyungsoo came out again.

Seeing Kyungsoo with his suitcase made his heart do flips all over again. “Kyungsoo, fuck. Please, we can talk about this.”

“I don’t want to say anything to you,” Kyungsoo said, his voice shakier than before. He put his suitcase down on the floor and looked at it, then looked up to Junmyeon. “Help me take everything to the car.”

Junmyeon almost resisted but found himself unable to. He took Kyungsoo’s suitcase outside, following Kyungsoo and standing in the driveway as he watched Kyungsoo put his cats in the car. He could hear Angela meowing for freedom and he breathed slowly. “Kyungsoo, babe.”

Kyungsoo closed the car door and looked behind him, then back to Junmyeon. “You’re parked behind me. You’re going to have to move your car.”

Junmyeon smiled painfully. “What if I refuse to do that?”

Kyungsoo snarled at him. “Then I’ll call the school and tell them you’ve been fucking your students.”

Junmyeon absolutely could not argue with that so he went to get his keys, feeling sedated. When he was leaving the house to go out to his car he passed Kyungsoo in the hallway. “I need my fucking clothes in the dryer,” Kyungsoo explained, and Junmyeon smiled sadly before going outside and moving his car. He parked it in the street and got out, and Kyungsoo left the house carrying a sad-looking trash bag full of his clothes.

“Making me make a swift exit with this bag of vaguely damp clothes,” Kyungsoo scowled at him, and Junmyeon smiled a little.

“I’m not making you do anything.”

“I feel like you drove me to this.” Kyungsoo closed his eyes and breathed slowly before opening the passenger door and putting the bag there. He closed it carefully as to not scare his cats, and then turned around to face Junmyeon. He stood there for a moment, his lips pursed and looking ready to spit fire, but nothing came out. Junmyeon thought it was the smallest he had looked all night.

Junmyeon broke the silence. “Your frying pan is still in the kitchen.”

“Then I’ll be back for it later.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at how Junmyeon's lip quivered. “Don’t look at me like that. We work at the same place, it’s not like we’re never going to see each other again.”

“I love you,” Junmyeon said, since he had been preparing to say that no matter what Kyungsoo was planning to respond to him with.

Kyungsoo sighed slowly. “I can’t believe I love you so much.” Junmyeon didn’t know exactly how that made him feel. “I don’t know what I’m doing right now.”

Junmyeon frowned. “Then stop all this and come back inside.”

“No. I know I need to go home.” Kyungsoo paused, biting his lip, and Junmyeon stared at him sadly. “I hate you so much right now.”

“That hurts,” Junmyeon said quietly.

“That’s why I said it,” Kyungsoo replied. “You hurt me too.”  
  
“I really didn’t mean to.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Kyungsoo said, and then pursed his lips before moving around the car to get in the driver’s seat. Junmyeon followed him like a lost puppy, and saw Kyungsoo sigh to himself before rolling down the window. “Please don’t follow me home.”

“I’m not going to do that.” Junmyeon said. “I just. God. I don’t know.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Kyungsoo said quietly, and it was the sweetest thing he had said all day. Junmyeon thought he was going to burst into tears right there. “And we’ll talk about...whatever.”

“Please don’t break up with me,” Junmyeon pleaded, feeling like he was beyond feeling any sort of pride right now.

Kyungsoo exhaled heavily. “I don’t want to break up either. I just need to be away right now.”

“I love you so much.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kyungsoo stared forward at the steering wheel and pulled out of the driveway, and Junmyeon watched him drive off until he couldn’t see Kyungsoo’s car anymore. He stood there in the driveway for a while until the brisk early spring breeze got a hold of him, and then went back inside, feeling monumentally empty.

He could feel the absence of Kyungsoo and his cats as soon as he stepped inside. He walked into the living room and saw the two plates of his now-cold stir fry on the coffee table, and sat down on the couch, reaching for the remote because like hell he was going to be able to watch Jeopardy right now. He turned it to the local news channel and let it play, not registering anything that was being said. He finally started to cry, and he was surprised at himself for being able to hold it in for so long. He didn’t really know what to feel. He didn’t really know what just happened. But he felt profoundly empty and he needed to get it all out before he grabbed his phone and called Kyungsoo to beg him to come home.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Junmyeon had already texted him five times by one AM and it was taking a toll on Kyungsoo. Angela and Pierre were not taking to the change kindly, even though they used to live here in Kyungsoo’s old apartment - it seemed they had grown too accustomed to the mountains of miscellaneous antiques and hidey holes that were scattered all over Junmyeon’s cluttered house. Angela refused to join Kyungsoo in his bedroom, and Pierre had resigned himself to sit in the sink of the bathroom that was connected to the room. Kyungsoo looked up from his bed to the doorway of the bathroom, considering whether or not he should turn the light off. He was mostly sure Pierre wouldn’t mind. But he was feeling particularly sensitive to others’ feelings right now.

He didn’t check the most recent texts that Junmyeon had sent him, because the first two or three were all in the vein of “I’m so sorry please come home” and Kyungsoo didn’t feel like bothering with that. He almost had a mind to reply angrily with “I am home”, but he thought that maybe he had hurt Junmyeon enough for one day. Junmyeon was sensitive. He wasn’t going to be purposefully spiteful just to make him cry some more.

He was lonely, though. He wasn’t used to being alone at night anymore, and his bed felt uncomfortably large without his boyfriend and their three cats. One AM was usually too early for him to get to sleep, but he knew it would be difficult once he tried to rest his head.

Kyungsoo kept closing his eyes and trying to legitimize his leaving Junmyeon, but as the night went on it became more difficult. He assumed that it was the blind rage he had felt earlier today that had succeeded in getting him out of the house, because right now he kept hearing a refrain of _come on, it’s not really that bad, Junmyeon doesn’t sleep with students anymore_. At one point he remembered telling himself _maybe you were just really mad about the washing machine_. But he knew that was just wishful thinking because he missed Junmyeon’s touch. It wasn’t going to win him over.

His phone buzzed again, and he lifted it to look at it out of habit. It was Junmyeon again, telling him that he was going to go to sleep but he was leaving his ringtone on just in case Kyungsoo wanted to contact him. That was...whatever, Kyungsoo didn’t care. He dropped his phone and sighed up at the ceiling. At least Junmyeon would leave him alone now.

He immediately picked up his phone again and opened it. He felt like he wanted to talk to someone right now, someone who would respond to him in English instead of meowing balefully at weird times, which Kyungsoo thought was impolite. He was vaguely confused when he looked through his contact list for the first time in a while, and only found ten or twelve names there. Wow. He truly didn’t know that many people.

But that didn’t bother him. He knew that the quality of his few friends was what really mattered. He considered calling Ryeowook, but thought not of it, Ryeowook had to get up at obscene hours in the morning for his job...Kyungsoo scrolled to the top of the list and found Baekhyun Byun there.

That would be inappropriate. Baekhyun was undoubtedly his best friend at school, despite him being a sophomore in his Marxism class, but Kyungsoo absolutely could not text a student about his relationship problems. That made him feel just as gross as Junmyeon’s indiscretions did.

Kyungsoo sighed and dropped his phone again, giving up. Maybe he needed more friends. It was difficult, since Kyungsoo was twenty-four and a professor at a college. Most of his colleagues steered clear of him, and although he related more to the students, he didn’t want to form bonds with them. He wondered if he was making things harder for himself.

No. He was being an _adult_. He should probably just suck it up and try to converse with his colleagues, however much older than him they were. He was an old soul, he could fit in just fine if he tried.

He pulled his bedsheets over himself and tried to slow his breathing, ignoring the light on in the bathroom. Pierre probably liked it, whatever. He rolled onto his side at stared at the window. He had the feeling he was going to be up all night, laying miserable and exhausted but unable to sleep. He figured Junmyeon was having a rough night as well, and it made him feel a little bit better. He thought that was sick.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Kyungsoo wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Junmyeon standing sadly outside of his office door after lunch. Kyungsoo sighed softly to himself, looking at the deeply frowning little man through the crack in his door, and straightening out his suit jacket. He had only taught one class that morning - Fridays were generally easy for him - and he was still feeling somewhat asleep, and in no mood to deal with this right now.

But he knew it had to be dealt with. He ushered Junmyeon in with his hand silently and Junmyeon bounced inside, closing his office door behind him.

Junmyeon stood there in front of the door, saying nothing and staring ahead with big, puffy eyes. Kyungsoo noted that with his freshly dyed black hair and slight frame Junmyeon probably could’ve been mistaken for a stressed-out student right now, and it made him smirk a little bit. Junmyeon probably would’ve gotten a kick out of that. Kyungsoo didn’t feel in any mood to make him smile, though.

“What are you laughing at?” Junmyeon asked him with a nervous smile, and Kyungsoo wiped the smirk from his face.

“Nothing.”

“Can we talk?” Kyungsoo noticed that Junmyeon’s voice hadn’t changed a bit from the miserable soft-spoken mumbling sound it had been last night. Kyungsoo was thankful that he himself felt a lot calmer after a long night’s rest.

“Of course we can. Sit,” Kyungsoo motioned for Junmyeon to sit down in the chair across from his desk, and Junmyeon did so. Kyungsoo looked up and stared at him for a moment, watching Junmyeon fuss his hands over themselves in his lap. Junmyeon looked at him for a little while longer, his mouth slightly open but saying nothing, and finally Kyungsoo sighed. “Are you not going to say anything?”

“I don’t know what to say. I feel like, I feel like no matter what I say you’re going to be upset with me. And I understand that.”

“That.” Kyungsoo pointed at him. “That’s manipulative. When you say things like that you’re expecting a certain reaction out of me and I’m not going to give it to you.”

Junmyeon made a pained face, and by the way he grit his teeth Kyungsoo could tell that he wasn’t actually trying to manipulate him. Kyungsoo figured it just came naturally to Junmyeon. He didn’t know what to think of that. “Look, just say whatever you want and I’ll listen to you. I won’t get mad. Unless you say something fucking stupid and I don’t expect that of you.” Kyungsoo sighed. “I’ve calmed down because I’ve had time to think.”

“I’m glad,” Junmyeon said, and then paused. “That you’ve had time to think. That’s.” Junmyeon stared at his hands and then looked up at Kyungsoo. “I said a lot of things last night that I shouldn’t have said. I should have let you read the thing Chanyeol wrote and I shouldn’t have trivialized the way you felt about it. I understand now what you must’ve been feeling.” He looked away from Kyungsoo again. “I just want you to know that I’m taking it very seriously and I’m not going to let Chanyeol think he can do things like this and have everything work out in his favor. Whatever kind of relationship we used to have is irrelevant now.”

The corner of Kyungsoo’s mouth perked up in a smile but Junmyeon didn’t see it. “Yeah, that’s good. But I think I got most of that from you last night.” Kyungsoo blinked. “That’s not really what I was upset about.”

“I know.” Junmyeon looked up at him. “I just wanted to. Make that clear.”

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo said shortly. He stared at Junmyeon, forming sentences in his brain and then dashing them all away as soon as he tried to speak. He didn’t know how to exactly express himself. “You know I’m mad at you because you slept with students in the first place.”

“That was almost a year ago,” Junmyeon tried to excuse himself, “before we started dating.” He stopped. “But I know that, that doesn’t make it better. I know why you’re upset with me.”

“It kinda makes it better,” Kyungsoo fidgeted with a pen off of the corner of his desk, not looking at Junmyeon. “But you’re right.” He sighed. “I think I’m mostly mad at myself for putting up with this bullshit for so long without addressing it. It all just kind of. Came crashing down last night.”

Junmyeon didn’t say anything, and Kyungsoo could feel his eyes on him. “I’ve known since, probably since before we even started dating. Because it’s kind of common knowledge and people would tell me. That you sleep with students and nothing ever gets done about it because your father’s on the board of directors and your family donates a lot of money to the school.” Kyungsoo looked over at him and saw Junmyeon trying to squirm in his seat without being detected. “And there’s nothing I can do about that. I just have to believe you when you say that that part of your life is in the past.”

“It is,” Junmyeon said after a long silence, and Kyungsoo smirked a little bit, not addressing it.

“It just really grosses me out.” Kyungsoo sighed. “And I fucking know you’re lying to me when you say you didn’t tell your students you’d fix their grades if they slept with you. That’s complete bullshit and I know it. I can hear you saying that. I know you, I know the way you talk to people when you’re trying to get them to do something for you.” Kyungsoo raised his eyes to bore into Junmyeon. “I want to hear you say it.”

“What?” Junmyeon laughed shakily. “Say what?” He grinned tightly. “You want me to tell you I’ll fix your grades if you sleep with me? Kyungsoo. That’s kind of naughty.”

Kyungsoo scowled and hit his fist against his desk, making Junmyeon jump. “Don’t fucking flirt with me right now.”

“I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo almost laughed at how quickly Junmyeon’s face hardened. “What is it you want me to say to you?”

“How the hell do you make exchanging sex for grades not sound illegal? I can’t believe at least one of your students hasn’t told you you’re disgusting and then called the cops.”

Junmyeon sighed heavily. “You don’t believe me. I _really_ don’t use grades as leverage against students.”

Kyungsoo pursed his lips, feeling a fire rising in his belly once more. He hated how goddamn sincere Junmyeon sounded. “Then why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?”

“Because...” Junmyeon furrowed his brow a little bit, as if he was thinking over whether or not to confess to a crime. Kyungsoo thought maybe it was that serious. “Because. Once. I had a student proposition me with that. He asked me. It wasn’t my idea.”

Kyungsoo stared at him for a moment, and felt his face relax, although his chest still felt tense. “But you went through with it. You forged grades because a student slept with you.”

“He didn’t sleep with me. He just gave--”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Kyungsoo sighed. “I don’t want to hear it.” He could see Junmyeon smiling a little bit and he didn’t know what to make of that response. “You should probably be fired.”

“Yaah, Kyungsoo.”

“But I don’t wish that on you. I think you’ve at least got some really warped moral code and that’s not really common when it comes to professors who sleep with their students.” Kyungsoo bit his lip into his mouth and thought for a moment. “It’s still really fucking creepy and I hate it.”

“I used to flirt with students. Most of them didn’t flirt back. Some of them did. A lot of them weren’t even in my classes.” Junmyeon paused. “But I don’t _do_ that anymore. And I can’t imagine myself doing it in the future.” He blinked, and then became a little quieter. “I see how upset it’s made you.”

“That would probably mean more to me if you had figured that out through seeing how upset it made the students you picked on who didn’t want the attention.” Kyungsoo frowned at him. “Of course you feel bad that you’ve hurt me. You like me.”

“I love you.”

“Yeah, that. But there are students who you made uncomfortable, and they probably went to file a complaint against you. And then the complaint gets conveniently lost because your dad is important. That has to make the students feel powerless. I don’t like it.” Kyungsoo stared hard at Junmyeon and watched Junmyeon’s hand clench and unclench.

“I wasn’t thinking about it from that angle.”

“Yeah, I figured you weren’t.”

“It’s good that I’m not flirting with students anymore,” Junmyeon said shortly. Kyungsoo snorted a laugh.

“I’m still mad at you. Especially when you make cracks like that. But I know that that’s just how you deal with things and most of the time you’re not even thinking before you say anything. Sigh. You’re so weird. But even after these past ten minutes I find you charming.”

Junmyeon smiled sadly. “Are you going to come home, then?”

Kyungsoo blinked at him, feeling himself slouch down in his chair. “No. I’m home where I am right now. I don’t think I should be living with you.”

He saw the way Junmyeon’s lip started to quiver and he wasn’t ready for what he assumed was going to follow. “Why not? Soo. We've lived together for half a year. I can’t stand my house when you’re not in it. I walk around and I notice all the things I have to clean up and everything you left. I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

Kyungsoo sighed, not really feeling swayed. “My cats hate my old apartment. They’re shitting everywhere. They’re probably shitting everywhere as we speak. You’d think that they’d be fine with it since they used to live there. But no, they want to shit in your house. I bet they miss Hickory's judgemental old ass.”

Junmyeon laughed weakly. “Then come back.”

“No. I thought about it a lot last night. I feel like I don’t want to be so close to you right now.”

Kyungsoo watched the light fall out of Junmyeon’s eyes and he nearly reached over the desk and hugged him to bring it back. But instead he studied the way Junmyeon’s shoulders hunched, and watched his lips silently fumble over words in the familiar way that meant he was searching for something to say. “Kyungsoo, god.”

“I was full of a lot of anger last night but I was right. I believe that. You...whoever you’ve been really jostled me and I need some time alone. With myself. To figure things out.”

“I don’t like it when you say things like that,” Junmyeon said, and Kyungsoo could hear a little break in his voice. He sighed.

“Of course you don’t. They’re not things you want to hear.”

“I’m ridiculously in love with you. And I know you love me too.” Junmyeon swallowed.

“I do. I just. I can’t shake the feeling I’m being smothered by something I need to step back and examine.” Kyungsoo breathed slowly and looked at Junmyeon. “I just want to take a break, alright.”

Junmyeon whimpered and it made Kyungsoo bristle, but he didn’t make a move to stop it. “Junmyeon, please don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it.” Junmyeon lifted his arm to he could wipe his teary eyes on his jacket sleeve and it made Kyungsoo smile bitterly. “Sorry. You know I get-- I get like this.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re an emotional little man.” This made Junmyeon bark out an uncomfortable-sounding laugh and Kyungsoo smirked at it. “That still doesn’t change the way I feel right now. I think it would be the best for both of us if we took a break.” He sighed. “It doesn’t have to be permanent.” He paused. “I really don’t think it will be.”

“You say that but I don’t believe you,” Junmyeon said, and he moved his arm away from his face. “It kinda sounds like you’re preparing yourself to dump me.”

“Junmyeon. I love you. If I wanted to break up with you I would but I don’t want that. I just need some space to breathe.”

Junmyeon stomped one foot on the floor shortly and it actually made Kyungsoo laugh out loud. “You’re saying all the typical breakup things, ahh, stop it!”

“I’m not breaking up with you, you’re just taking it that way for some reason. Junmyeonnie.” Kyungsoo smirked at how Junmyeon pouted at him with puffy red eyes when he called him by a nickname. “I’m not breaking up with you. I love you so much. I want to live in my own house and make my own food and not have to wait for you to get out of the shower in the morning. I just want time alone with my thoughts. It doesn’t mean anything deeper than that.”

Junmyeon sighed slowly and looked away from Kyungsoo’s smirk. Kyungsoo could tell by the way his shoulders stopped shaking that he was starting to get it. “Then. I guess.” He breathed after this non-thought, and tried to string a sentence together. “If that’s what you need to be comfortable...then I won’t take it from you. Fine. We can take a break from each other.”

“You’re still my boyfriend,” Kyungsoo said, feeling as if he had to console Junmyeon from the way he was sitting dejectedly in his chair. “Kind of. It’ll be like...you’re in reserve.”

“Yahh.” Junmyeon was sulking already and Kyungsoo wanted to hit himself for thinking it was _charming_ of all things. “Fine.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“How can I make you stop sulking?” Kyungsoo asked, and Junmyeon eyed him carefully, his mouth open but no words coming out. Kyungsoo smirked a little bit at him. “Open relationship?”

Junmyeon’s eyes got wider and he scowled at him. “I’m not gonna be able to bring myself to fuck anyone who isn’t you! That’s not going to work.”

“For some reason I doubt what you’re saying. I think we should give it a try. For your sake.”

“Kyungsoo!” Junmyeon whined, sitting back in his chair, and Kyungsoo laughed out loud. “Aagh! I don’t want to imagine you sleeping with anyone but me!”

“I really doubt that I’ll do that.” Kyungsoo chuckled. “I’m not interested. You don’t have to worry.” He cleared his throat. “But if I give you permission to sleep with other people then I have the right to experiment, too.”

Junmyeon stared at Kyungsoo with wide eyes, and Kyungsoo snickered at him. Junmyeon started to stomp his feet against the floor like a child, but he sighed and leaned his head back. “Fine.” He huffed. “Whatever it takes to make you comfortable again. I don’t care. I’ll do anything. Fine! Sleep with nobody. Sleep with everybody. I don’t care.” He ended this with an exaggerated pout and Kyungsoo guffawed.

“You’re being a toddler. But I appreciate the surrender. I know it means you love me.” Kyungsoo emphasised it to drive his point home, and he smiled a little bit at the way Junmyeon’s mouth perked up at the side. “Is that all? Is there anything else you want to apologize for?”

“For every indiscretion I’ve made against you in my life,” Junmyeon mumbled, and Kyungsoo snorted.

“We’d be here all night.”

“As long as it means I can be here next to you.” Junmyeon replied swiftly. He eyed Kyungsoo carefully, and Kyungsoo stared at him right back.

“You can’t charm me any more than you already have. Stop flirting.”

“Ugh.” Junmyeon stood up and brushed his pants off, and Kyungsoo watched him fuss with the watch around his wrist. “Fine. I guess we’re done, then.”

“I’ll see you around.” Kyungsoo smiled up at him, and Junmyeon stopped messing with his watch to stare at Kyungsoo.

“God, my heart just did a flip. Don’t say things with such finality like that. Fuck. This is going to take some getting used to.” Junmyeon sighed and moved towards the door. “I’ll...I’ll see you.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you.” Junmyeon looked back at him. Kyungsoo smiled and raised a hand to wave at him.

“Bye, Junmyeon.”

Junmyeon gritted his teeth and left, closing the door behind him. Kyungsoo could clearly hear Junmyeon stomping his feet on the ground in frustration as soon as the door was closed, and he put his hand in front of his mouth to control his laughter. He felt somewhat sadistic for doing this, but he was having a lot more fun than he had had in a while. He told himself this all wasn’t as serious as Junmyeon was making it out to be. His hand inched towards his phone on his desk so he could shoot Junmyeon an “I love you too” text, but he decided not to do it. He was going to enjoy himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Junmyeon thought twice before sending Chanyeol a “I need to talk to you in my office” text, because he was almost positive that would be misconstrued. So he sent him an email from his college account, formatted it as professionally as he could, and kept it short. I need to talk to you, you’re not in trouble, yes this is about the letter you wrote. He thought that maybe Chanyeol would still think he was going to react positively. He sighed heavily when he pressed send.

Chanyeol knocked on his office door about a half an hour later and waited until Junmyeon called out to him to open it. He grinned hugely at him, a kind of dorky smile that showed all of his teeth, but it immediately disappeared when he saw the blank look on Junmyeon’s face. “Ahh, Professor Kim, hi.”

Junmyeon leaned back in his chair, bouncing a little bit on it. “You can call me Junmyeon, that’s fine.” He paused and then shook his hand in the air. “Actually, no. Please don’t do that.” At least he had gotten to a point where he knew he had to set boundaries. Ever since this afternoon he had the feeling that Kyungsoo was watching him and he had to act accordingly. “Sit down.”

Chanyeol moved to sit in the chair across from Junmyeon’s desk, and put his backpack on the floor. He looked up at Junmyeon and smiled again, this time slightly more nervous, and Junmyeon could see him rocking back and forth in his seat. Junmyeon sent a tight-lipped smile his way.

“Ahh, so I read the letter you wrote me.” Junmyeon didn’t think making pointless small talk would help him get his point across, so he decided to just go for it right out of the gate. He reached into his briefcase and pulled the limp piece of looseleaf paper out and placed it on his desk.

“Did you like it?” Chanyeol smiled nervously again, and when Junmyeon looked up to his face the grin dropped, as if he was trying to hide his excitement. Junmyeon laughed softly to himself.

“Uhm. I don’t really feel any which way about it.” Junmyeon glanced up to Chanyeol to see his frown, and then glanced away again. “It’s caused me a lot of problems already.”

“Ahh.” Chanyeol said dumbly. He blinked at him, and Junmyeon blinked back. “I’m...sorry.”

“I was flattered, really. It’s a sweet gesture.” Junmyeon cleared his throat, trying to ignore how the letter had started flowery and derailed into ‘I want to fuck you senseless’ territory. “But it’s...it’s really not something you should give to a professor.”

“Oh. I thought that since we--”

Junmyeon didn’t want him to finish that sentence so he cut him off. “I understand. But we’re not involved anymore.” Junmyeon looked up and stared into Chanyeol’s face. “I’m just your teacher. I don’t want to be receiving things like this.”

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol said as soon as Junmyeon stopped speaking, and Junmyeon smirked.

“I have half a mind to turn this into the department, you know.” He watched Chanyeol’s eyes get wider and felt a pang of guilt for enjoying it.

“That-- that would get me in trouble?”

“I don’t know, I just know that I would get in trouble for being involved with you.” Junmyeon sighed. “So I’m just going to throw it out. We’re going to forget about it, alright?”

Junmyeon thought that the look on Chanyeol’s face could only be described as crestfallen. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that he was going to throw it out. He was going to do that, anyway, but perhaps he should’ve kept that to himself.

“I get it. I guess that makes sense.”

“Keep writing.” Junmyeon’s eye twitched as he said this to Chanyeol, as if his complete disingenuousness was painfully apparent. He prided himself in shaping young minds, he had to promote this kind of creativity. Right. “Just not to me.” He smiled a little bit, trying to raise Chanyeol’s spirits, and Chanyeol just stared back at him.

“Okay,” he mumbled quietly. Junmyeon tried to sigh as softly as he could to go undetected.

“That’s all, Chanyeol.” Junmyeon lifted a hand to rub at his face, and cocked his head to the side when Chanyeol didn’t move to leave. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Really?” Chanyeol asked him.

 _No I’m pretty damn mad at you._ “Really. You’re just young and headstrong. I get it.” He sighed again. He wasn’t about to tell a student all of the shit he had caused between him and his boyfriend, since he figured that would be entirely inappropriate. Some part of him still wanted to grab Chanyeol and blame him for the “open relationship” he was now stuck in. But he knew that wasn’t the real reason for anything.

“Alright,” Chanyeol said, standing up and stretching out his gangly legs before reaching down and grabbing his bag. “Thanks, I guess.” He threw his bag over his shoulder and fussed with the straps between fidgety fingers. “Uhm.” He glanced at Junmyeon’s face and then looked away when Junmyeon met his gaze. “Please don’t show it to anybody.”

Junmyeon smiled stiffly. “Of course not.” _It’s going right in the trash._ “I wouldn’t do that.” _I’m going to fucking burn it and bury the ashes in my backyard._

“Thanks.” Chanyeol said shortly, and then made a swift exit. Junmyeon thought that seeing him in class the following day was going to be weird. Well. For him, not for Junmyeon.


	5. Chapter 5

The week was over and Kyungsoo was fussing about the teacher’s lounge making himself a cup of coffee before going home. He was mostly sure that Junmyeon had already left to go home, since he was done early on Fridays and usually didn’t like lingering around the office. Kyungsoo was grateful for that, since he didn’t really want to see him right now. He took his little coffee cup over to the makeshift coffee bar and glanced over both shoulders before putting a single packet of Splenda inside. He had been feeling too bitter for his liking today.

He took a sip from his coffee and hummed to himself. He didn’t remember talking to anybody but his students and Junmyeon today, and it was kind of worrying. He looked around the teachers’ lounge and surveyed the few of his colleagues that were still sitting around, all absorbed in their laptops or newspapers and not paying attention to each other. Such was the custom on Friday afternoons, and Kyungsoo had concluded, after half a year of being at this school, that the politics department wasn’t the most friendly of places. He had heard stories of the theatre and music departments being full of bubbly personalities and he vaguely yearned for it as he looked over the room.

It dawned on him that Junmyeon was actually the only close friend he had made in half a year of teaching. And that was probably only because they were fucking. Kyungsoo sighed and moved towards the plush chairs, feeling bold and deprived of human interaction. The semester was nearly over and he was suddenly a free man, maybe he should try his hand at making a friend.

He knew Hyungshik already because he and Junmyeon had been civil to each other before Kyungsoo even came to the school. Kyungsoo sat down in the chair next to his, looking at him for a bit before comprehending that Hyungshik was absolutely not going to look up from his newspaper and notice him. Kyungsoo sighed again. He had already determined what he thought of Hyungshik, even though he was pretty sure they had never had an actual one-on-one conversation: Hyungshik was wealthy and proud of it, wore clothes fancier than Junmyeon’s and spent more time looking at his hair in the mirror than he would probably admit to. He was intelligent and standoffish because of it, and most likely lauded himself for his behavior. Kyungsoo could tell that Hyungshik enjoyed being perceived as a tortured soul. He cleared his throat and Hyungshik glanced over at him.

“Kyungsoo.” Hyungshik gave him the stiffest smile Kyungsoo had ever seen, and Kyungsoo returned it. “Good to see you.”

“Likewise,” Kyungsoo replied, and then Hyungshik stopped speaking to him. Kyungsoo almost sighed again just to get his frustration across. If Hyungshik wasn’t going to entertain him with conversation then Kyungsoo would just keep bothering him. “How was your day?”

“Busy,” Hyungshik said, not moving his eyes away from the page he was reading. Kyungsoo pursed his lips, feeling as if he was talking to a brick wall. He opened his mouth to say something more, but to his surprise Hyungshik beat him to it. “Where’s Junmyeon? Usually he’s chaperoning you around.”

Kyungsoo didn’t quite know what to make of this remark, but he wasn’t going to act too offended. “I suppose he went home, he gets off early on Fridays.”

“Must be nice,” Hyungshik mumbled. He looked up from the newspaper and gave Kyungsoo a little smile. “Can’t believe he’s let you out of his sight for more than a minute.”

Kyungsoo faked a polite smile. “Well, he understands that I’m a human being with my own wants and interests.” He was done with this conversation. He stood up and waved with his free hand. “Good talking to you.”

“Have a nice weekend,” Hyungshik said, and Kyungsoo heard him snort to himself as he turned away towards the door. It took Kyungsoo everything not to whip back around and scream his head off at Hyungshik for being so goddamn patronizing when Kyungsoo was just trying to make a friend, but he didn’t want to attract attention to himself so he just wandered back to his office. He wasn’t feeling in any mood to go home to his cold apartment with his angry cats, and he let out the heaviest sigh of the day when he plopped down in his desk chair. He felt like he had been there all day.

He logged back onto his computer, preparing himself to get lost in the clickhole of the internet, and checked his email first out of habit. There was something about the student buildings being out of toilet paper, as there seemed to be an email about that every week now. He deleted it. The other email was from Sehun, the young philosophy professor Kyungsoo remembered having maybe one or two conversations with. When he opened it he saw the email was sent to Kyungsoo and only him. He blinked.

It was about Kyungsoo’s thesis. Kyungsoo had entirely forgotten that he had sent it to Sehun for some outrageous “light reading” since Junmyeon straight-up refused to read his 152-page dissertation about early-Marxist manifestations in the new democracies of the 20th century. God, that was a mouthful just to think. Kyungsoo sort of understood why Junmyeon never wanted to read it.

But Sehun did, because while Sehun didn’t say much in conversation, he always seemed to have his nose in something. A few weeks ago Kyungsoo had been sitting in the human resources office, whining to the liaison Minseok about how his dumb boyfriend wasn’t interested in his thesis, and Sehun spoke up from out of nowhere, telling Kyungsoo that he’d read it. Kyungsoo wasn’t even aware Sehun was in the room. He had that kind of air about him.

The email was brief, and Kyungsoo wasn’t expecting much more than that. It was mostly Sehun telling Kyungsoo that he had finished reading and annotating, and that Kyungsoo should come by his office to pick it up. Kyungsoo smirked to himself at the thought of Sehun writing in red pen all over the place. He ended the message with “best regards”, which Kyungsoo thought was funny: Kyungsoo had always considered his absurdly long dissertation an extension of his soul, and had thought that maybe this kind of exposure would bring him closer to anyone who read it. That was probably wishful thinking.

He shut his computer down again and packed up his bag, ready to head off to the philosophy building. He passed through the teacher’s lounge again on the way out and was uninterested in whatever was going on. He walked a few blocks across campus to get to the philosophy building, shivering a bit in the March breeze. He had been here for nearly an entire school year and he still wasn’t entirely used to the weather. He entered the philosophy building and stopped in the hallway. Where the hell was Sehun’s office?

He wandered around looking for it, glancing at the name plaques outside of all the doors. Most of these names he didn’t recognize, which he could’ve seen coming. The school was big and there wasn’t a lot of department mingling going on. He climbed the stairs to the second floor when the first floor proved unfruitful, and found Sehun’s office off in the corner of a hallway right next to a classroom.

He knocked on the door quietly, and then louder when there was no response. Still no response. He cracked the door open, because he could hear faint music coming from inside, and Sehun was sitting at his chair - it was larger and cushier than Kyungsoo had envisioned - reading a book. Kyungsoo smirked to himself and knocked on the door again, and Sehun looked up.

“Ahh.” Sehun threw the book down on his desk, frowned at himself, and picked the book up again to find where he had left off. Kyungsoo watched him scramble through pages and then put his bookmark inside, closing the book more civilly this time and then rummaging around his desk. “Doctor, I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Kyungsoo grinned. Even though Sehun was his senior - just barely though, wasn’t he only thirty-one? Kyungsoo remembered being told that Sehun was the youngest professor on campus before Kyungsoo showed up - it was nice to hear him acknowledge his academic achievement. He walked in and made to sit down in one of the chairs around the office, but Sehun picked up a large stack of paper and handed it to him, distracting him. Kyungsoo took it gratefully.

“Thank you. I’m really pleased that you took the time to read this, it means a lot to me.” Kyungsoo started to thumb through the pages, and noticed legions of words in green ink scribbled in the margins on nearly every page. He laughed out loud and looked up at Sehun. “Ahh, you weren’t kidding.”

“I took it seriously.” Sehun said.

“I was expecting red pen, to be honest.”

“Red is aggressive. That’s what they tell you in high school.” Sehun fidgeted with some trinkets on his desk. “So I only have green pens now.”

“That’s thoughtful,” Kyungsoo said, and he sat down in a chair, starting to read Sehun’s comments. Sehun cleared his throat, and Kyungsoo looked up at him.

“I would, uhm, appreciate it if you...didn’t.” He paused. “I get anxious when people read things I’ve written in front of me. I’m sorry. It’s not your fault.”

Kyungsoo put the papers down and put his hand on top of the stack. “No, I- I understand.”

“We can be in email correspondence if you want to discuss the things I’ve mentioned. But.” Sehun made a nervous laugh and Kyungsoo thought it was one of the most unique sounds he had ever heard. “Not right now.”

“That’s fine. I’ll read it tonight and email you.” Kyungsoo smiled at him, and Sehun smiled back. Kyungsoo almost made a move to get up and leave, not wanting to impose upon Sehun, but Sehun started speaking again.

“How was your week?” He asked him, and Kyungsoo froze. How was his week. Well, all in all he had had a pretty shitty week. Probably the shittiest week of the year. But that wasn’t going to be his contribution to small talk.

“I’ve had better,” he said shortly. Sehun frowned.

“Sorry to hear that.”

“That’s okay. It means that next week can only be better.”

“That’s a good way of thinking about it.” Sehun smiled a little bit and Kyungsoo saw it as incredibly awkward. “What happened?” He paused. “If I’m allowed to ask.”

“Ah.” Kyungsoo wasn’t expecting this kind of curiosity. He swallowed, and Sehun seemed to pick up on his hesitance.

“I’m sorry if it’s too personal.” He cleared his throat. “I just absorbed your passion for Marx today, I feel as if I know you. A passion like that is hard to shake off.”

Kyungsoo stared at him for a moment, in disbelief that this was actually happening. Sehun was too fucking strange. He barked out a laugh, more awkward than Sehun’s before him, and then shook his head. “No, that’s, that’s nice! Ahh. You threw me off.” He couldn’t stop the grin on his face from forming. “Uhm. It’s so personal.”

“That’s fine, you really don’t have to tell me.”

“Junmyeon and I had a fight.” Kyungsoo couldn’t help himself. “We’re kind of at a weird place. I don’t know if we’re broken up or what. I think we’re both really confused. At least I am. I don’t know how I feel about him right now.”

Sehun’s head cocked to the side, his eyes showing nothing. For some reason Kyungsoo didn’t find it unnerving. “Ahh, really?” A little smile spread on his face and Kyungsoo thought it was strange. “That’s...unfortunate.”

“Do you hate him?” Kyungsoo asked, suddenly feeling small in his chair. All day he had been hyper-aware that other people had their own opinions of his boyfriend, and Hyungshik’s teasing earlier didn’t make him feel any better. Sehun stared at him blankly.

“No. I really don’t know Junmyeon that well.”

“Huh. He talks about you sometimes.”

“Well.” Sehun said, and then ended the thought. Kyungsoo wondered what would’ve come after that. “I’m sorry that you and Junmyeon fought.”

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo sighed. “I just feel really jumbled up right now.”

“Mm.” Sehun’s lack of a response was oddly calming. Kyungsoo didn’t feel like he was being judged, instead, he looked up at Sehun’s blank face and truly believed that Sehun was just too awkward to know how to respond. It was comforting.

“It’s just that. That’s all.”

“I’m sure things will fix themselves,” Sehun said. He paused. “I don’t know how to talk people through their problems, I’m sorry if that’s what you’re expecting.”

“No, not at all. It’s nice to say it out loud.” Kyungsoo sighed and looked away from Sehun. “It really does help.” He wanted to say something about how he was trying to come to terms with his friendlessness all day and Sehun was lifting his spirits a lot. But he thought that might be coming on too strong. He forced a smile and sent it in Sehun’s direction, and the sides of Sehun’s mouth perked up a bit.

“I’m glad that I could listen, then. If it--” an alarm on Sehun’s phone went off, and his face went into full-frown mode, his hands scrambling to turn the sound off. “It’s six? It’s fucking six. How is it six?” He frowned at nothing in particular, staring straight ahead. “Why do I care that it’s six?” He paused. “Fuck, I have to pick up my brother from the airport.” He stood up, starting to collect his things, and Kyungsoo smiled at him some more.

“Wait. I want to give you my number.” Kyungsoo stood up a bit, holding out his hand, and Sehun eyed him warily.

“I have a boyfriend,” Sehun said, and then immediately after, “I’m sorry. That’s not what you meant at all.”

“No.” Kyungsoo laughed a little bit, and then Sehun unlocked his phone and handed it to him. Kyungsoo started to put his contact information in. “Do you really? I didn’t think you were gay.”

Sehun made a breathy sound and cocked his head to the side. “I guess that’s what you’d call it.” Kyungsoo didn’t know what kind of statement that was so he just didn’t engage it. He texted his number on Sehun’s phone to get Sehun’s number, and then handed Sehun’s phone back to him.

“I’ll text you or something when I’m reading your words,” Kyungsoo nodded, and Sehun breathed slowly in response.

“Alright.”

“I’ll see you sometime. Thank you again,” Kyungsoo put the stack of papers in his bag and tied everything up, and Sehun kept looking around his office for things that appeared to be scattered in every which direction.

“No problem. Have a good weekend.”

“You too.” Kyungsoo left him there and exited the philosophy building, feeling like he was walking on air. Did he just make a friend? He couldn’t remember the last time he had done that. It was a surreal feeling. His thesis was heavy in his bag, as heavy as it usually was, but right now Kyungsoo felt weightless. It was a welcome change from the despair he had woken up to. Hopefully when he got home his cats would greet him happily instead of proudly directing him to the messes they had made.


	6. Chapter 6

Jonghyun wasn’t particularly wealthy but he always had expensive alcohol in his flat and Junmyeon was grateful for it. It was Friday night and Junmyeon had spent the latter half of the day in Jonghyun’s office complaining about his life, so Jonghyun invited him over for some alcohol and sadness, and Junmyeon took him up on it.

When he arrived their friend Taeyeon was already there, sitting at the kitchen counter with a wine glass looking ethereal as ever. Junmyeon smiled weakly at her as he walked into the room, and Jonghyun bustled past to get him a glass of wine. Taeyeon frowned in response to his smile.

“Junmyeon, what’s wrong with you.” Her voice was flat and her face blank, as Junmyeon was used to. “Usually you run up and hug me. Something’s wrong.”

“It’s no big deal,” Junmyeon tried to downplay his mood, and Taeyeon stood up from her stool, rushing over to Junmyeon in tiny little steps that made her heels click against the floor.

“No, I want to hug you.” She did so, Junmyeon attempting to be cold and mysterious and not respond, but finding it impossible and hugging her back. Jonghyun watched them from behind the counter with a little smile on his face. She pulled back to look Junmyeon in the face, and he dodged her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I had a bad night last night,” Junmyeon huffed, moving to sit down at the counter. He pulled up a stool and looked over at Taeyeon when she returned to hers. “I didn’t sleep at all.”

“That’s rotten,” she replied. Jonghyun poured Junmyeon a glass of wine, and when he sat the glass down in front of Junmyeon, Taeyeon held her half-full one out for him to refill. Jonghyun did so wordlessly, giving her a little smirk as he did so. “I’m sorry.”

“He and Kyungsoo broke up,” Jonghyun said, and he shrugged when Junmyeon shot him a look. “I figured you were going to take an hour of push and pull to say it, whatever.”

Taeyeon’s mouth dropped open delicately and she looked at Junmyeon from over her wine glass. “Really?”

“Not really.” Junmyeon took a long sip from his glass, and when he put it down on the counter it was half gone. Jonghyun quietly refilled it. “We’re not broken up. We’re taking a break.”

“That still has the word break in it,” Taeyeon said. She frowned at him. “What are you trying to spin?”

“No, that’s actually it.” Junmyeon sighed heavily. “Kyungsoo got mad at me and he said he wanted to take a break. He stressed that we weren’t ‘breaking up’. He just said he wanted to be away from me for a while.” Junmyeon huffed loudly; every time he told the story he felt like he was reliving it. Maybe he should stop telling the story so many times. “He told me he wanted an open relationship.”

“Oh, Junmyeon, I’m so sorry.” Taeyeon leaned over and hugged him again, and Junmyeon was less receptive this time.

“It’s not a big deal. He’ll be back soon.”

“Sure...” Taeyeon said softly, and Junmyeon glared at her. He heard Jonghyun stifle a giggle and it wasn’t welcome.

“What the hell does that mean.”

“It sounds like Kyungsoo was trying to break up with you nicely.” Taeyeon replied, and Junmyeon sighed as dramatically as he could. The situation called for it. He took another long sip of wine and sloshed his drink around in the glass.

“I really don’t think so. I think we’re just at a rough place right now. But we’ll be back together. The entire time he was talking to me he kept saying how much he loved me. That doesn’t make it sound like we’re breaking up. He just wants to go off and do whatever right now. And I’ll let him do it.”

“Okay.” Taeyeon sighed a little bit and blew air out on her glass. “That makes it sound better. I don’t know. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m not going to get _hurt_ ,” Junmyeon said indignantly. “I know Kyungsoo will be back like, next week.”

“We won’t let you get hurt,” Jonghyun said kindly, and Junmyeon looked up at him. They stared at each other for a few moments, and then Junmyeon let out a shaky breath.

“The open relationship thing makes me nervous. I don’t want to fucking think about Kyungsoo sleeping with other people.”

“That should help you out, though,” Jonghyun waved the bottle of wine in Junmyeon’s direction. “Since you sleep around so much.”

Taeyeon snorted and Junmyeon scowled at Jonghyun. “I do not. Not so much anymore.”

“That’s. That’s because you’ve been in a relationship for a lot of the year.”

“No, shut up. I’m not going to sleep around. I can’t think of it, I would feel like I was cheating on Kyungsoo or something.” He scowled to himself. “If he goes off and kisses some other guy, then...” He blinked, and sighed softly. “So be it.” He stared at the counter, not wanting to meet either of his friends’ faces. “I don’t know what I’m talking about,” Junmyeon said quietly. “I’m really scared.”

“Oh, baby.” Taeyeon moved her hand to rest on top of Junmyeon’s on the counter, and Jonghyun whimpered in his direction. Junmyeon laughed a little bit and drained his glass.

“Fuck. Fuck. I _really_ don’t know what I’m talking about. What if he isn’t back next week?” He adjusted his position on his stool and cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to do. I really want to text him but I think he’s ignoring me at this point.”

“Don’t text him,” Jonghyun said. “If he wants space you should give it to him, no matter how much you miss him.”

“I know but it’s _hard_.” Jonghyun refilled Junmyeon’s wine glass and Junmyeon groaned at it. He was already feeling a little bit woozy from how quickly he had been drinking and his lack of sleep. Taeyeon patted his hand and Jonghyun looked at him with huge puppy eyes, as if he didn’t know how to respond. Junmyeon scowled. “I know you’re trying. Thanks.”

“We love you, Junmyeon.” Taeyeon leaned over and hugged his arm, and Junmyeon forced a smile at her.

“Thanks. I love you too.” He dropped his shoulders and tried taking a sip from his drink. “How was your day?”

“Long. My Intro Chem students took forever in the lab today and I didn’t think I was ever going to get home.” Taeyeon sighed. “But that doesn’t matter. I want to talk to you, Junmyeon. What happened between you and Kyungsoo?”

Junmyeon eyed Jonghyun carefully before responding. He had told the whole story to Jonghyun in his office earlier, because Jonghyun was receptive to his feelings and Junmyeon knew he wouldn’t judge him. Taeyeon was less likely to be so welcoming, since Junmyeon was pretty sure she didn’t know about his interactions with students yet. “It’s pretty personal. I don’t really want to go into it.” He took another sip of his wine. “Out of respect for Kyungsoo. I don’t think he wants other people knowing about it.”

Taeyeon sighed, but seemed to accept this excuse. “Okay.” Junmyeon was glad that she didn’t see through his lie. Usually she was good at that. She locked eyes with Jonghyun for a second and said nothing, and Junmyeon was afraid they were sharing some mutual agreement to talk about it when Junmyeon wasn’t with them. Junmyeon rolled his eyes and went undetected.

He downed the rest of his glass and put it down on the counter, and then got up from his stool. “I want to lay down,” he said, and he wandered into the living room. He heard Jonghyun and Taeyeon exchange a few words, and then listened to their sound of their footsteps as they followed him. Junmyeon laid down on the couch and grumbled, shaking a little bit when he felt Jonghyun put a soft hand on his shoulder.

“Junmyeon, do you want to go to my guest room?” He asked. Junmyeon groaned.

“I’m fine here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I haven’t slept in like. Forty hours or something ridiculous. Just leave me be.” Junmyeon yawned, finally willing to let himself sleep now that he was full of wine and horizontal. He heard Jonghyun laugh a little bit, and didn’t take interest in where Jonghyun and Taeyeon were sitting down. He felt something lean up against his back, and he turned around slightly to see Taeyeon’s head leaning on him. She glanced up at him and smiled, and Junmyeon chuckled a little bit before relaxing.

“We’re just going to watch TV, then.” Jonghyun told him, and Junmyeon grunted in response.

“Okay.”

“We’ll try not to be too loud.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Junmyeon yawned again and squirmed a little bit on the couch. “Thanks. You guys. For letting me hang out with you.”

Jonghyun let out a dry laugh at him. “Ahh, of course.”

“I’ll try not to puke everywhere.”

“You didn’t drink enough to puke.”

“I hope you’re right.” Junmyeon cuddled up with himself and closed his eyes, trying to drown out the sound of the television buzzing quietly. He heard a phone vibrate and he jumped, suddenly excited that Kyungsoo was contacting him, but he saw Taeyeon opening her phone to check and registered that it had been hers. He sighed at his eagerness and bumped his forehead against the back of the couch. He was being too clingy. He needed to just let Kyungsoo do his own thing for a while...and then he would be back next week. He thought that maybe if he kept telling himself that, he would come to believe it. He fell asleep on Jonghyun’s couch shortly after reassuring himself that everything would be alright.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

The next day Baekhyun texted Kyungsoo to come over and hang out, and, as per usual, Kyungsoo felt weird about saying no to him. Kyungsoo always felt weird about Baekhyun, no matter what it was: talking to him after class, seeing him in the hallways, grading his papers. Baekhyun was a good kid and if Kyungsoo was still a student, he would undoubtedly be his friend. But Kyungsoo was a professor, even if he was only five years older and Baekhyun. There needed to be boundaries.

Baekhyun was so nice to him, though, and it made Kyungsoo feel like he had more than one friend in the world, even if he was a student. Setting boundaries was difficult when he himself was so starved for the attention he didn’t get back when he was in school. Junmyeon told Kyungsoo countless times that it was okay he was friends with Baekhyun, Baekhyun was close to his age, they shared the same interests and had good conversations...but maybe Junmyeon wasn’t the best person to be getting that reassurance from. Nonetheless, Kyungsoo found himself in front of Baekhyun’s dorm building that Saturday, waiting to be let in.

Baekhyun came downstairs and grinned at Kyungsoo as he opened the front door, holding it open so he could come in. “Hey!” Kyungsoo smiled tightly back at him, grateful that there weren’t any students who saw him waiting outside. “Sorry you have to wait out there. It’s so fucking cold out for spring.”

“I’m getting used to it,” Kyungsoo said, and he followed Baekhyun up the narrow staircase to his bedroom. Every time he visited Baekhyun’s room he was initially surprised by how big it was, but then he remembered that Baekhyun had two roommates. They were always very conveniently not there whenever Kyungsoo visited. He found that curious.

He looked around the room and marveled at how incredibly youthful it looked. There were musical instruments scattered all about, and all three desks were covered in knick-knacks and looked impossible to work at. That would explain the quality of Baekhyun’s work recently, he didn’t have a good place to get anything done. He noticed three pieces of paper taped up to the wall with varying amounts of tally marks on them, and he smirked. “What’s that?”

Baekhyun looked to where Kyungsoo’s eyes were trained and he laughed out loud. Kyungsoo glanced at him and Baekhyun shook his head. “It’s nothing important. Just a game I’m playing with my roommates.” Okay. Kyungsoo wasn’t going to push on that, since the goofy look on Baekhyun’s face made it seem like it was private.

Being in the student dorms always made Kyungsoo nervous, and when he took his shoes off and set them down by the door he rearranged them to be perfectly symmetrical a few times before looking over at Baekhyun’s bed. Baekhyun was staring at him with a bemused smile, and Kyungsoo cleared his throat. “What are we watching?”

“The episode of SVU that’s based off of Michael Jackson is fucking intense, I want to show you.” Baekhyun clicked around on his laptop and Kyungsoo groaned, walking over to his bed.

“Baekhyun, SVU is so dark.”

“Yah, it’s a good show!”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Why you’re so fascinated by sex crimes I’ll never want to find out.”

“The writing in this show is a lot more riveting than the other Law and Order shows, leave me alone.” Baekhyun leaned back on his bed and huffed up at Kyungsoo, and when Kyungsoo stared back at him Baekhyun hugged his knees to his chest. “What do you want to watch?”

“I don’t really care,” Kyungsoo sighed.

“Then we’re watching this. Sit,” Baekhyun said, patting his bed, and Kyungsoo looked at him for a long moment before going over to the other side of the room and taking a chair away from one of the desks there. “Is it okay if I take this?”

“Yeah, Jongdae doesn’t care.” Kyungsoo could hear a little sigh in Baekhyun voice and he wasn’t going to entertain it. He pulled the chair up as close to Baekhyun’s bed as he could get it, and then sat down, crossing his legs and looking at Baekhyun’s laptop screen as it buffered. He could tell Baekhyun was gazing at him out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to look at him.

“What.”

“You look so angry.” Baekhyun said softly. “And you’re sitting so stiffly.”

“I’ve had a long week.” Kyungsoo tried to excuse himself, and Baekhyun kept staring at him with big eyes. Kyungsoo sighed. “It’s not you, Baekhyun, I promise.”

“Maybe if you were sitting on my bed you’d be more comfortable,” Baekhyun attempted once more, and Kyungsoo didn’t bother responding. This was one of the laziest attempts to get Kyungsoo in bed that Baekhyun had ever tried, and Kyungsoo wasn’t having it. _At least put in some effort_. The episode started to play, but then Baekhyun lifted his foot to press the spacebar with his toe and pause the video. Kyungsoo was impressed by this feat. He glanced over to Baekhyun and Baekhyun was still looking at him. “What happened?”

Kyungsoo wasn’t in the mood to discuss it with Baekhyun, and he wasn’t sure he ever would be. He was painfully aware of Baekhyun’s crush on him, and he didn’t think talking about his relationship problems with him would be very kind. And Baekhyun would most definitely have some overjoyed response and Kyungsoo didn’t want to deal with that. “It’s personal,” he said shortly, hoping Baekhyun would get the message that he didn’t want to talk about it.

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun said, and then looked back to the paused laptop screen, and then to Kyungsoo again. “Aren’t we friends?”

Moments like these made Kyungsoo realize just how much more mature he was than Baekhyun, despite being only five years his senior. Sometimes it was really obvious and it made him uncomfortable. “Of course we are. I just don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun said quietly, and then pressed the spacebar with his toe again. The episode continued to play and the two watched it with light commentary, and every time Baekhyun laughed he grabbed onto Kyungsoo’s arm. Kyungsoo was used to that, and it made him feel a little more comfortable. He wasn’t welcoming the way Baekhyun squeezed his muscle a tiny bit but he was willing to overlook it. About halfway through the episode Baekhyun’s bedroom door opened, and they both looked over to see who it was.

Kyungsoo only recognized him as “Baekhyun’s taller roommate” because he didn’t actually know their names. He vaguely remembered Baekhyun calling someone Jongdae sometime today. The boy looked tired, and wandered over to the opposite side of the room to throw his messenger bag on the ground, not taking notice of Baekhyun and Kyungsoo. Baekhyun called out to him. “Chanyeol, you didn’t come home last night!”

Kyungsoo felt his heart drop. Wasn’t that the name of the kid who wrote that gross letter Junmyeon had? A sense of dread loomed over him as he watched Baekhyun pause the episode once more with his toe. He glanced over to Chanyeol to see him sitting on his bed, rubbing his eyes with his hands. "Yeah.” He sighed. “I accidentally fell asleep in one of the practice rooms. A building services guy woke me up."

“Is everything alright? You shoulda texted me, Jongdae and I were worried last night. We just concluded you were getting laid.” Baekhyun laughed. “For some reason. Text me when you’re going to sleep in practice rooms.”

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep there,” Chanyeol sighed and dropped down on his bed. “I just had a shitty day, I dunno. I tried to go and write a drum solo to destress but I ended up falling asleep. Can’t believe nobody fucking woke me up until the next day.”

“They see tired college students and they’re afraid of waking them up and getting bitten,” Baekhyun grinned at him. “Really, Chanyeol, what happened.”

Chanyeol looked up, glanced at Kyungsoo, and said nothing. Kyungsoo thought that the look he gave him was rather odd. “It’s nothing.”

“People need to stop internalizing their problems because that only makes that shit fester and then explode!” Baekhyun scowled, and Kyungsoo could tell that he was low-key aiming that in his direction. “Seriously, I’ll listen to you. I won’t even say anything if you don’t want me to. I think it would be good if you got it out.”

“I’ll tell you later,” Chanyeol snapped, and then rolled onto his side, facing the wall. Baekhyun’s shoulders drooped, but Kyungsoo could see him taking this as an acceptable answer. He was pretty sure Chanyeol was being so reserved because Kyungsoo was in the room. And if Kyungsoo was guessing correctly, Chanyeol was upset because Junmyeon had talked to him about the letter. It was understandable that he wouldn’t want to talk about it with Kyungsoo in the room.

Kyungsoo lifted his phone and almost texted Junmyeon asking him if he had sat down with Chanyeol today, but thought better of it. He was trying to refrain from interaction with him right now. But when Baekhyun restarted the episode Kyungsoo couldn’t help himself, bringing up Junmyeon’s name on his phone - it was still the top of his messages list, but that was because of all the texts he was spamming him with last night - and typing out a quick “Did you talk to Chanyeol like you said you would?” text and then sending it.

Baekhyun didn’t seem to notice Kyungsoo not paying attention for a minute and he was grateful. He could tell that Baekhyun had just spiralled into a rotten mood, and he didn’t want to prod him. After a few minutes Kyungsoo had a response - he didn’t know why he was so surprised at the swiftness, of course Junmyeon was sitting with his phone anticipating Kyungsoo to text him, of course he was - and Kyungsoo tried to read it without being detected.

“I did, I think he got the message that it was inappropriate. I threw the letter out.”

Kyungsoo sighed. So Chanyeol was upset that his love interest rejected him. Kyungsoo would’ve found it vaguely endearing if the love interest in question wasn’t his boyfriend. _Ex-boyfriend_. Something. Whatever he was.

Near the end of the episode Baekhyun had migrated over to be hugging Kyungsoo’s arm and Kyungsoo was accepting it as unavoidable. He didn’t respond in any way, feeling warmer and more comfortable than he thought he would be, and when Chanyeol called out from his bed he didn’t jump like the neurotic little man he thought he was. “Baekhyun.”

“Yah.” Baekhyun responded, not moving his eyes from his laptop. Kyungsoo smirked at how engaged he was.

“Why is Doctor Do here?” Chanyeol asked, and Kyungsoo raised his eyes to look at him. Chanyeol was staring at them from over his arm, his eyes just barely peeking out. He heard Baekhyun grumble a little bit, and he looked up from the laptop to frown at him.

“Because I wanted to watch a tv show with him.”

“He’s a professor,” Chanyeol said, and then put his head face down into his pillow, as if he was done arguing already.

Baekhyun was near shouting already, and Kyungsoo was impressed as ever with his ability to be so passionate in the drop of a hat. “He’s my friend. He’s not teaching me anything right now. Why are you being so rude? You’ve never had a problem with him being over here before. And you shouldn’t be making him uncomfortable, he’s right fucking here, Chanyeol. If you have a problem with it you should wait for him to leave.”

“I just think it’s weird!” Chanyeol lifted his head so he could reply to Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo bristled a little bit. He didn’t know what he should do. He glanced over at Baekhyun and Baekhyun caught his eyes, and then sighed.

“That’s your problem then. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Kyungsoo’s cool, he’s my friend.” For some reason the juxtaposition of Chanyeol calling him Doctor Do and Baekhyun calling him Kyungsoo made Kyungsoo anxious. He fidgeted his feet a little bit, and Baekhyun didn’t notice. “Stop being so mean.”

“I’m not being mean. I’m just trying to keep Doctor Do out of jail.”

Baekhyun scoffed at him and started to retort, but Kyungsoo stood up jerkily, feeling very nervous. “I’m going to go,” he said to Baekhyun, fussing with the front of his jacket, and the hurt look on Baekhyun’s face almost made him sit back down.

“Ahh, Kyungsoo! Don’t listen to him, he’s just being a douche!” Baekhyun scrambled to stand up from the bed when Kyungsoo moved over to sit down and put his shoes back on, and he stood hovering over Kyungsoo. “Really, Kyungsoo, he’s just in a bad mood.”

“I don’t want to be here right now, I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo tied up his shoe and Baekhyun sighed loudly.

“We were almost done with the episode.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’ll send you a link,” Baekhyun said when Kyungsoo finished tying up his shoes and stood up. Kyungsoo smiled at the gesture.

“Thanks, I’ll watch it. Thanks for having me over,” he said, and disappeared out the door before Baekhyun could grovel at him some more.

He closed it behind him and stood outside the door, hearing Baekhyun shout “Chanyeol, what the fuck is your problem?!” as soon as the door clicked. Kyungsoo smirked to himself and bolted before having to hear any more of their argument. He left the student dorm as quickly as he could, and let out a huge sigh of relief once he was out on the street again. He felt as if he had been holding in that breath the entire time. Being in the student dorm terrified him.

He almost took his phone out and texted Junmyeon to ask him what he was doing. This was an unfortunate thought. He was trying his best to not interact with him, but the moment he felt vaguely uncomfortable he had to go running back, because he felt safest in Junmyeon’s arms. That wasn’t good. He needed an outlet that wasn’t making him feel like shit.

He considered texting Sehun, but that was a wild idea. Sehun probably didn’t want to hang out anyway. He went back to his car and frowned at how cold it was, feeling his hand sting as he touched the freezing metal on his seatbelt. He was okay with going home, making some coffee, and reading what Sehun had written on his thesis. That sounded like a good enough idea.


	8. Chapter 8

On Monday Junmyeon was still hungover, because when Jonghyun had given him a taste of depressed drunkenness he didn’t want to let it go. He had drunk like a fish all weekend, as if it was going to quell his angst, and for the most part it did the job. But now he was sober at work and feeling all the effects.

He was standing around in the teacher’s lounge of the Theatre and Dance building, since he had become accustomed to this space because he spent so much time whining in Jonghyun’s office. This lounge was nicer, it had a lot of art-deco chairs and the people actually spoke to each other, which Junmyeon had found was looked down upon in the Politics building. All of the Politics professors were such assholes. Except for him.

But right now there wasn’t anybody in the room, just him sitting in a plush chair with a cup of tea that was too cold to drink. He sipped at it slowly and didn’t enjoy it at all, and tapped his foot against the floor. Jonghyun had gone off to teach his stage comedy class and Junmyeon didn’t have anything to do until four. He was content to just wait off his hangover right here.

He heard heels clicking across the hallway and he really didn’t want to deal with whatever was about to happen. But he looked over at the hallway anyway and snorted out a laugh when he saw Hakyeon posing extravagantly in the doorway. He sat up a little bit and grinned, and Hakyeon grinned back, walking over to him and sitting in one of the chairs next to Junmyeon’s.

“Fuck is wrong with you?” Junmyeon asked him.

“You just looked so upset, I wanted to make you laugh.” Hakyeon smiled. He was one of the dance professors here, Junmyeon was pretty sure, and even though he and Hakyeon hadn’t actually spent a lot of time together Junmyeon felt like he knew him already because Jonghyun talked about him a lot. Junmyeon figured they did the school musicals together.

“Are you wearing tap shoes? They were clicking against the floor, I was expecting a woman to come in.”

“No, just expensive ones. I paid a lot of money for these so I expect them to announce my arrival.” Hakyeon crossed his legs and smirked at him, and Junmyeon couldn’t help but burst out into laughter again.

“Well, that worked. I knew you were coming.”

“They always do.” Hakyeon gave Junmyeon a saucy look at that that Junmyeon chose to ignore.

“How’s your day been?” Junmyeon took a sip of his tea, and then leaned over to put it on the coffee table, since it was cold and gross now and he didn’t want it.

“Pretty good. I’m lucky that my Mondays aren’t as rough as some other people’s. No complaints.” Hakyeon smiled tight-lippedly at him. “How about you?”

“I’m really hungover.”

“You are? Don’t look it. You look great.” Junmyeon glanced up at Hakyeon to see him leaning back in the chair with his arms stretched on the armrests. Junmyeon grinned at him.

“That’s very nice of you to say.”

“It’s true.” Junmyeon grinned again at the praise, and looked away, feeling a little bit awkward. This kind of attention made him feel weird recently, usually he loved it but right now it was less welcome. “What’re you doing out here on my turf? I thought you Politics people never dared to step foot off of your high horses.”

Junmyeon barked out a laugh, and regretted it for the pain it shot through his head. “I just came to see Jonghyun, but he left for a class.”

“Darn, us teachers do have those.”

“Yeah. I haven’t felt the urge to go back to my building.” Junmyeon sighed. “This one is more friendly.”

“I can imagine.” Hakyeon smiled at him. “We’re nicer people.”

Junmyeon gave him a little smirk. “Hey, not all of us are bad people. Some of us might be. I’m not afraid to throw my colleagues under the bus like that. But not all of us are bad.”

“Sure, sure. Haven’t met one I’ve liked yet.” Hakyeon let that sit in the air for a moment, giving Junmyeon a little grin. “‘Cept you, of course.”

“Of _course_.” Junmyeon laughed, and then it turned into a wistful sigh. “Kyungsoo is nice. But he’s the new guy, of course he’s nice. It might be our department that actually takes in bright-eyed hopefuls and churns out bitter old curmudgeons.”

“Kyungsoo, that’s your boyfriend, right? The inappropriately young one.”

Junmyeon snorted. “Yes.” _Stop that._ “No. I don’t know, something.”

Hakyeon quirked an eyebrow at this and Junmyeon felt like sinking into the chair and never coming out. He scowled at himself. He hated being self-conscious like that, it made him feel like other people had power over him. And he was not about that. Hakyeon showed all of his teeth in a grin. “Drama. I live for it. Drama, tell me.”

Junmyeon smiled a little and shook his head. “No, Hakyeon.”

“Drama. I need it. Feed me, Seymour.”

Junmyeon burst out laughing, felt his resistance weakening, but he still managed to shake his head. “I don’t really want to talk about it. Not the details. Ugh. We’re on some sort of break. An open relationship, he said.” Junmyeon snorted. “He wants to fuck other people.”

Hakyeon barked out a laugh that Junmyeon wasn’t expecting from him. “Really? Open relationship?” Hakyeon waggled his eyebrows and Junmyeon scoffed.

“Don’t give me that look. I’m not happy about it.”

“At least he likes you enough not to completely kick you to the curb. He still wants your dick, just some extra dick on the side.” Junmyeon nearly sat up and smacked him but found himself laughing too hard to do so.

“When you put it that way, I kind of understand it better!” Junmyeon grinned and sighed happily. “Hopefully it’ll work out like that. Ugh. He’s too awkward to sleep around. He really is. He’s only twenty-five, you know? He doesn’t know anybody here but me. That’s going to stand in his way.” Junmyeon chuckled cruelly, and Hakyeon rolled his eyes at him.

“You sound like a _douchebag_.”

“I _am_ a douchebag, I thought all Politics professors were douchebags.” He grinned at Hakyeon. Hakyeon shrugged.

“I said you were an exception.”

“Really? Because I don’t believe that.” Junmyeon crossed his legs. “I can be a douchebag.”

“We’ve all had our moments, I’m sure.”

“I’ve had more than I’d like,” Junmyeon said, sitting in his chair and feeling like a supervillain. He thought back on all of his shitty moments he had had in the past week and wanted to erase his entire life. Or maybe just the past five years or so.

Hakyeon cocked his head to the side as he looked at him. “You’ve got some deep-seated issues and I don’t know if I’m who you should be talking to. We’ve got a great Psych department, I’m sure.”

Junmyeon laughed shortly. “Thanks.”

“I mean it. Go get help. When you’re confident you’re sexy.” Hakyeon made eyes at him for a moment, shooting him a challenging expression, and Junmyeon smirked at it. “Just saying.”

“Thanks for the advice. I see where you’re coming from, but I think I’m pretty sexy all of the time.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Hakyeon licked his lips subtly and Junmyeon twitched a little bit. He didn’t know if this kind of attention was something he wanted right now. He was on his feet faster than he remembered thinking he wanted to move, and he leaned over to pick up his cup of tea.

“I should probably get ready for class,” he lied, and he saw Hakyeon sit back in his chair and throw a hand up at him.

“Alright, fine.” He sounded exasperated but a little smile played on his face. Junmyeon smirked back at him.

“Thanks for entertaining me.”

“Anytime.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Of course.” Hakyeon waved his fingers at him and Junmyeon waved his fingers back, feeling floaty as he turned the corner on his way out of the building. That was kind of weird. He hadn’t flirted with someone his own age in a really long time. He stopped and nearly started to bash his head against the wall for how creepy that made him feel. What the fuck.

But at least he got over that hurdle. Maybe this would be healthy for him. He sighed as he threw out his cup of tea and left the building, bundled his blazer closer to his body in the wind. And maybe he could make Kyungsoo jealous. _That’s probably not a healthy thought._ He considered coming back to see Jonghyun tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 9

The week went by quickly and Kyungsoo was impressed with how well he got through it. Whatever drama had happened with Baekhyun seemed to have solved itself, because when saw Baekhyun in class following the incident Baekhyun didn’t act in any way out of the ordinary. Kyungsoo was glad to not have to worry about that. He was still thinking about Junmyeon constantly, but it didn’t have the same bitter undertone as it used to. He saw him in the hallways of the department building and smiled at him every time, but tried not to partake in Junmyeon’s lingering stares. He thought that maybe he might get sucked back in if he did that.

So he tried his best to treat Junmyeon as civilly as possible, returning smiles and laughing at his bad jokes when he thought they were funny, but when Junmyeon put his hands on him he froze up. Junmyeon patted his shoulder the other day and Kyungsoo felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He knew he shouldn’t be reacting that way, that that probably signified something was wrong, but he didn’t want to think about it. He was just nervous that he was going to want to return to him.

What the fuck was wrong with that, anyway. Why couldn’t return to him? After a week or two Kyungsoo could barely remember why he was mad at Junmyeon in the first place. Junmyeon obviously wasn’t sleeping with students anymore. At least, he said he wasn’t and Kyungsoo believed that. He didn’t want to entertain the idea of Junmyeon being such a clever liar and leading a double life. He honestly didn’t think Junmyeon had that in him.

He concluded that he was going to hold out for as long as he could, just out of spite. He was entirely sure that he was going to go back to him. That made him feel kind of foolish. There wasn’t really a point in being broken up if Kyungsoo knew he wanted to be with Junmyeon. But it was the _principle_ of the thing. He needed to stress how much Junmyeon had hurt him. He had never had such power over another human being before and seeing him squirm was kind of fun.

 _That_ was a thought that made him uncomfortable. It came to him when he was sitting in his office on a Thursday afternoon, staring at some papers on his desk without registering what he was looking at. He looked up and frowned at the direction his mind had taken him in. Was he fucking with Junmyeon just because it was some sort of sick power trip? That...made him an awful boyfriend. Surely that wasn’t it. Since when had he gotten off on power?

Well, he hadn’t been in possession of power until recently. He shook his head to get those thoughts away. He was just hypothesizing out of thin air because he was so anxious.

Kyungsoo started to fuss around with the papers on his desk, trying to get some sort of organization going, and he found an envelope poking out from under his desk lamp. He picked it up and looked at the front. This...didn’t have his name on it. It was from the Human Resources department, and it had someone else’s name on the front. He didn’t even recognize it, so he figured it wasn’t someone in his department. Why would he have received this?

He assumed some mistake was made in delivering the letter, and he sighed. It might be important, he would have to get this to the owner. That seemed like kind of a quest. He settled on returning it to HR and letting them handle it.

He had about four hours until his next class - teaching mostly freshman intro courses in an unpopular subject sometimes had its perks - so he decided to get it done while it was fresh in his mind. He went to the school’s website to check where the hell the Human Resources department was located, and grabbed his coat as he walked out the door, slipping the envelope in the inside pocket. He made his way outside and into one of the administrative buildings, and he was grateful it was closer than he had expected. The weather seemed to be getting colder and colder, which made no sense.

Kyungsoo looked around when he entered the building and cleared his throat nervously. He walked up to a person who looked like a secretary sitting at the front desk, and asked where the Human Resources department was located. She pointed him in the direction and he followed it, and then this hallway came back to him. Minseok worked down in this direction, he was pretty sure. He had visited Minseok once or twice when he was first getting started as a sort of mandatory therapy practice. Kyungsoo always thought that was sweet of the school to make him do.

He entered the room labeled Human Resources and smiled when he saw Minseok sitting at the desk there. Minseok greeted him jovially, and when Kyungsoo looked to the corner of the room he saw Sehun sitting in a chair an awkward ways away, his legs crossed and a book in his lap. Kyungsoo’s smile twitched a little and he refocused on Minseok.

“Hey, it’s good to see you.” He could feel Sehun’s eyes glancing up at him, but when Kyungsoo looked back to see him Sehun was already back to his book. "How are you doing?"

“I’m doing well, no complaints. How are you? I always assume that when people show up here they’re in a bad way.”

Kyungsoo smiled a little. “That’s a bad thing to think.” He brandished the envelope out from his inside pocket and held it out to Minseok. “No, this doesn’t have to do with me at all, actually. This was delivered to my office but it’s not for me.”

“Fuck, really?” Kyungsoo laughed as Minseok took the envelope and looked it over. For some reason he always expected Minseok to be like a sweet and jolly mother-like character, and was surprised whenever he let a curse word slip or did something out of the ordinary. Kyungsoo figured he’d have to spend more time with him to remedy that. “You’re right, this most certainly isn’t for you. Sorry about that. Damn, I was wondering why she wasn’t responding to me.”

“Your mailman must be asleep on the job.”

“I don’t know what the interns are doing. Hungover, all of them.” Minseok sighed. “Thank you for returning this, though, it’s really helpful.”

“No problem.” Kyungsoo felt a little bit like he was lingering after this, and he twiddled his fingers together without noticing it. Hell, he had time to kill. He might as well. He moved and sat down in one of the plush chairs across from Minseok’s desk, and Minseok smiled softly at him. “It’s really been a while. I haven’t visited in so long.”

“It’s good that you haven’t,” Minseok said, and then made a face at himself. “I mean, not because I don’t want to see you. That came out wrong. Because when people are here it means they’re in trouble, or something bad is happening.” He waved his hand at Kyungsoo. “At least, usually.”

“I’m happy to report that everything is going fine.” Kyungsoo was pleased that he had this kind of mindset only a week after his messy breakup. That reassured him that everything was going to be okay.

“I’m so glad to hear that. I knew you’d do just fine.”

“Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo heard Sehun’s voice from the corner, and he smirked over at him. Sehun was staring at him with big eyes and Kyungsoo thought it was hilarious how unattentive he was.

“Hey. I saw you looking at me earlier, why are you ignoring me?” Kyungsoo teased with a smile, and couldn’t read the look on Sehun’s face. Sehun’s eyes were so damn stony all the time that he never knew what he was thinking.

“I’m sorry,” Sehun’s voice came out softly, and Kyungsoo laughed out loud.

“I was kidding, please don’t apologize.” Kyungsoo grinned at him and he saw the side of Sehun’s mouth twitch upwards for a millisecond. He looked back to Minseok and the grin on his face was so wide that Kyungsoo had to stop and marvel at it for a second.

“He can be so sensitive, don’t mind him.” Minseok added. Kyungsoo looked at Sehun and saw a very shy smile as he turned his eyes back to his book.

“Sehun, I’m sorry I still haven’t emailed you about my thesis. It’s taking me a while to read it.” Sehun looked back up at Kyungsoo with his eyes wide as ever, and he shrugged.

“Please don’t feel rushed.”

“You read Kyungsoo’s thesis?” Minseok asked Sehun, and Sehun nodded.

“I edited it and Kyungsoo’s going to make the correct adjustments.”

Minseok barked out a single laugh and Kyungsoo snorted. “If I _can_ make adjustments. It’s so heavy, I feel like I have to put aside an entire day to go through that thing.”

“I read it in a few hours,” Sehun’s voice was nearly inaudible again, and Kyungsoo smirked at him.

“You can immerse yourself in that sort of thing. I’m having trouble.” He sighed. “Grading papers this week is hard, too. I’ve forgotten where I kept everything important in my apartment. I moved back there last week.”

“Really?” Minseok asked. “Where were you living before?”

“You lived down in Gladstone with Junmyeon, right?” Sehun’s voice was louder this time and Kyungsoo nearly jumped hearing it. He glanced in between Sehun and Minseok and nodded.

“Yeah, at his place.”

“Oh.” Minseok uttered. He paused. “Is everything alright between the two of you?”

Kyungsoo didn’t know how to avoid this question. “Junmyeon and I broke up.”

He noticed Minseok’s eyes widen in surprise at this and he almost laughed out loud. “Really? That’s...” Minseok laughed shortly. “Good.”

Kyungsoo pursed his lips. That wasn’t a response he took kindly to. “Why do you have that reaction?”

“He skirts around the law,” Minseok said plainly, and then tried to excuse himself with a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry if that came off as blunt. He just...it’s the nature of my profession. I don’t get along with people like him.”

“I.” Kyungsoo was actually impressed with how he completely understood. “I get that. I get it when people have issues with him.”

“I always thought it was weird he was so interested in you,” Minseok continued, and Kyungsoo could tell by the way he was pursing his lips that Minseok was trying not to overstep his boundaries but couldn’t help it. Kyungsoo almost smiled a little at him.

“So did I,” Kyungsoo agreed, “until I actually got to know him. He’s very nice.” _It’s almost unbearable how much I love him._ He wasn’t the kind of person to vocalize such thoughts. _Stop talking badly about him._ “We’re not exactly broken up, anyway. We’re taking a break from each other. I just felt like moving out. It’s no big deal.” Kyungsoo ended with slumping down in his chair a little bit, and immediately noticed how defensive he was being. Shit. He felt like an aggressive teenager.

Minseok was sending him a hesitant smile and Kyungsoo considered that Minseok had dealt with cases like Kyungsoo’s before. He probably had. “It’s always nice to get fresh air once in a while,” he said.

Kyungsoo heard Sehun close his book, and he looked over to see Sehun frowning at Minseok. “Don’t say something like that.”

Minseok laughed in response. “You know what I mean.”

“No.” Sehun turned to look at Kyungsoo, his face expressionless for a moment, and then his mouth breaking out into a thin, pensive line. “He wants to be rid of me.”

Minseok laughed again and Kyungsoo wondered if this was how they played together. He found it odd and somewhat charming. “I don’t want to be rid of you, Sehun. You’re twisting my words.”

“Minseok lets you sit in the corner of his office to read a book. He doesn’t even expect you to say anything.” Kyungsoo smirked at Sehun. “I don’t think he wants to be rid of you at all.”

Sehun sat up a little bit at this, and Kyungsoo thought he somewhat resembled a peacock who was suddenly flaunting his feathers. Or at least as much of a peacock as Sehun could look like. He fought back a small smile on his face. “You’ve caught me.” Kyungsoo thought Sehun was entirely strange, and somewhat endearing, so when he looked to Minseok and saw the adoring grin on his face he was pleased that he felt the same way.

“It’s pretty nice that so many of the faculty members here on campus are gay.” Kyungsoo mused. “I don’t know. This feels like a good environment for me to be in.”

Minseok smiled politely. “I’m really glad you feel that way.”

“I didn’t know that _you_ were gay,” Kyungsoo spoke up, and he looked at Minseok and caught a second of a grimace before it disappeared. He hesitated. “I mean, Sehun told me that you two were dating. And I can tell.”

“I’m. Yeah,” Minseok said with a smile, and he looked over at Sehun. “That’s right.”

Sehun had seemingly drifted off into his own world in the few seconds the attention was not on him, and he was glancing back and forth at the two of them, trying to look engaged but very obviously with no idea what was going on. Kyungsoo found that expression on him more times than not.

“We’re talking about gay things,” Kyungsoo said to Sehun jokingly to bring him up to speed, and Sehun looked slightly confused for a second and then clicked back to reality when he heard Minseok’s tiny laugh.

“I’m supposed to take my brother to a gay club this weekend,” Sehun said, and Kyungsoo had not been expecting a sentence of that variety to come out of his mouth.

“Really?” Kyungsoo heard Minseok’s low chuckle and assumed that Minseok had learned of this already. “You have a twin, don’t you? Is he gay too? The odds of that seem really unlikely.”

Minseok snorted and Sehun made an odd, wince-like face that still had a trace of a smile. “No, he’s straight, he’s just supposed to meet someone there.”

Kyungsoo paused at this. That didn’t actually make sense to him. “Why are you bringing your straight brother to meet people at a gay club? He’s not going to find what he’s looking for.”

Sehun actually burst out laughing shortly at this, and Kyungsoo thought it was an interesting sound. “No, it’s for work. He’s meeting someone he’s going to work with, it’s just the place they decided on. He told me it wasn’t a trashy club.” Sehun cleared his throat. “I don’t actually know. I don’t really want to go but he said he doesn’t want to be by himself.”

“He’s going to abandon you,” Minseok spoke up, looking at Sehun. “As soon as he meets up with his friend he’s going to be whisked off into socializing like he always is.”

“No, no.”

“I told you that he’s going to find a way to be by himself.”

Kyungsoo snorted. “It sounds like he’s trying really hard to get with another man without you finding out.”

If Sehun had had a drink he would have spit it everywhere. “No. No. Absolutely not. He just gets drunk and floats off into the atmosphere.”

“He sounds delightful,” Kyungsoo said, and Minseok laughed hard at him.

“He’s a nuisance,” Sehun said.

“Sehun, it’s almost noon,” Minseok said, looking at his computer screen, and Sehun’s eyes shot wide open.

“Fucking hell I have class.” He sighed. “Why don’t I ever know what time it is?” He stood up and fingered at the edge of his book nervously as he looked around for anything he had forgotten. Apparently he didn’t bring anything because he stopped that curious movement soon after. He smiled shakily at Kyungsoo, who was already grinning at him. “Good to see you again. I’ll. I’ll see you.” He then held his hand out to Minseok in a wistful gesture that Minseok smiled softly at.

“Have fun,” Minseok told Sehun as he left the room. He sighed happily at the sound of the door closing. “I’m really glad you came to visit, Kyungsoo. But I already told you that, didn’t I?”

“It’s nice to hear that any number of times,” Kyungsoo smiled a little. “I like Sehun a lot.”

Minseok made an airy laughing sound that Kyungsoo thought was adorable. “Ahh, that’s so sweet of you to say. I like him too.”

“I can tell.”

“He has so much trouble making friends,” Minseok started to fuss with some of the trinkets on his desk. “It’s good to know that you think well of him.”

Somehow Kyungsoo wasn’t surprised to hear this kind of information. “Of course I do. I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t.” At that he stood from his chair. “I suppose I should be going. I feel kind of silly sitting here with no purpose, like I’m keeping you from working.”

Minseok laughed but didn’t comment on it. Kyungsoo wondered if that had been what Minseok was looking for. “Alright, I’ll let you go. Thank you so much for bringing me this letter.”

“No problem. If you ever want to see me again, feel free to send any random old letter my way.” As it left Kyungsoo’s lips he thought that that sounded like something Junmyeon would’ve said. He found that intriguing. Minseok smiled at him and waved him out, and when he left the building he noticed it was a bit warmer outside.

Kyungsoo still had quite a bit of time to kill before his class, so he returned to his office and expected to get some grading done. He watched cat videos online and organized the pens on his desk by color. He wasn’t feeling particularly productive today.

About an hour later Kyungsoo got a text message from Sehun, the first one he had ever received from the number. His heart jumped a little at the occurrence.

_Do you want to go clubbing with Sunwoo and I?_

Another one came shortly after.

_This Saturday night._

Kyungsoo stared at his phone for a long time, and thought that if someone were to be watching him right now they might think he had been paused. Was he being propositioned in some way? Of course not. Sehun had a boyfriend and Kyungsoo couldn’t imagine him being unfaithful. What was this? Kyungsoo had never gone to a gay club before, that wasn’t even something Junmyeon had dragged him along to. He didn’t think he would be able to stomach a gay club with Junmyeon in tow.

But going to a gay club with Sehun sounded like a wild fucking idea. He could already picture the two of them being bored out of their minds a half hour in and calling a taxi to go home. He laughed at the thought. That sounded like exactly how he needed to spend his Saturday night.

He thought that responding right away would make him look strange, so he refrained. He kept the texts in the back of his mind for twenty minutes or so, and then responded. He had to make himself look busy. He was a professional, after all.

_That sounds like great fun._

He sounded like somebody’s grandfather. He sounded like Junmyeon. He was finding more positives to this breakup each moment, since he really wanted to come up with some Kyungsoo-esque stock phrases without having to latch onto Junmyeon’s way of speaking. He was going to work on that.

Sehun didn’t reply to the text, and Kyungsoo pictured him trying to look busy as well. The image made him laugh. He felt like flaunting his new plans, so he sent a quick text to Junmyeon.

_I’m going gay clubbing with friends this weekend. What should I expect?_

Junmyeon responded almost instantaneously, as he was known to do. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and thought that maybe Junmyeon had halted the class he was teaching to reply to his goddamn text.

_Booze and dancing. Dress nicely! I’m jealous as hell._

The text was innocent enough but Kyungsoo could feel that it was dripping with ‘what what what the fuck are you doing stop this come home I hate this Kyungsoo’, and it made him grin. This was sadistic of him but he didn’t quite care at the moment. This power was intoxicating, and he was going to enjoy it for a little while longer before guilt got the best of him. Junmyeon was a grown man and he could deal.


End file.
